A Constant Love: A Pride & Prejudice Continuation, page 27
“Oh yes,” Georgiana brightened slightly. “There are so many places on the Pemberley grounds I would like to show you. It will be beautiful as spring begins.”
“Then it is settled – we will make our preparations to leave town. You may have to suffer another visit or two to Almack’s with your aunt in that time, unfortunately.”
“I do not mind it so much,” Georgiana said. “Everyone there dances well and has good conversation. I only hope that Lady Catherine does not expect a match will come out of it.”
“Not in a few visits, I hope. We shall have you out of here before she can attempt any serious matchmaking.”
“Thank you,” Georgiana smiled. “Elizabeth – I wish – I wish to wait for Captain Stanton to return, regardless of how long it takes. I know it may be years, though, and I know that must put a burden on you and Fitzwilliam.”
“Nonsense,” Elizabeth said, embracing her. “You may stay with us as long as you wish, and you will never be a burden. Do not ever think that.”
Elizabeth could not help but wonder if time would lessen the strength of Georgiana’s affection; if Captain Stanton was gone long enough, perhaps Georgiana might meet with someone else, and fall in love again. She could not suggest such a thing to her sister now, however.
“I had thought we should call on the Bingleys and Gardiners today – I have missed them so, and we have much news to tell them,” Elizabeth said. “Would you like to go with us, or would you prefer to stay here?”
“I shall go,” said Georgiana. “I enjoy their company so, and it would be nice to have a diversion.”
When the family arrived at the Hursts’s town house, they were pleased to learn that they did not need to call separately on the Gardiners, as the Gardiners were already there, and the Hursts were out. All were pleased at the timing, but such pleasure was nothing to the reaction when they were all seated, and Elizabeth made the announcement:
“I have some news to share of the greatest kind – Kitty and Captain Ramsey are engaged to be married.”
“Oh, Kitty! It is indeed the greatest news!” Jane was still not so heavy that she could not rush across the room to embrace her sister, although her aunt Gardiner reached Kitty first.
Kitty blushed and accepted the congratulations of all, and when Mr. Bingley asked her if the couple had set a date, responded: “No, we cannot. He has received his orders to make HMS Andromeda ready for sea – it is a twenty-eight gun frigate – and he has left for Portsmouth this morning. He wished to secure our engagement before he went to sea.”
“Well, how very romantic,” said Caroline Bingley, contemptuously. “This is the captain with the family who owns a shop?”
“I think it is very romantic,” said Jane, who assumed Caroline to be jealous that this news had distracted them all from discussing her upcoming nuptials. “Captain Ramsey is quite an attractive, amiable man, and he has won a nice fortune in the war. He is an excellent match for Kitty.”
Elizabeth caught her husband’s eye, and gave him a slight, sly smile. To point out Captain Ramsey as attractive, considering Caroline’s own match, was the closest Jane would ever come to a barb at her sister-in-law, although it was likely too subtle for Caroline to feel.
“We also wished to let you all know that we will be leaving town a little after Caroline’s wedding,” Elizabeth said. “We will be stopping at Longbourn so that Mary and Kitty may return home, and then on to Pemberley. We do hope that you will all visit us – Jane and Charles, perhaps you might stay there while you look for your new home.”
“That would be capital!” Charles exclaimed. “We do wish to find a place well before Jane begins her confinement, and I believe I can manage the transition in the Netherfield lease by correspondence.”
“Then it is settled. Aunt, uncle, I do hope you might find time to visit as well.”
“Oh, we certainly will,” Mrs. Gardiner said. “I would never turn down an opportunity to see Pemberley again, and to visit with my old friends in Lambton. It would be a most perfect trip.”
“Yes, I will look for an opportunity when I might leave my business for a few weeks,” Mr. Gardiner said.
“You must avail yourself of the stream while you are there,” Darcy said. “We shall warn Cook to prepare her full repertoire for trout.”
“I should like that above all things,” said Mr. Gardiner, who had been hoping opportunities for angling would form part of their stay, and was very pleased to have this confirmed already.
“Sir Sedgewick and I will be honeymooning in Brighton, and then on to Hilcote – that is the name of his estate, you know, in Warwickshire,” Caroline said. “So I do not think we shall be able to visit this year, but perhaps another time. Once I am settled in as mistress of Hilcote, we may have you to visit instead.”
“That sounds delightful, although perhaps we should wait a while, before visiting,” Elizabeth said. “I expect you will wish to do some redecorating, as the new mistress of Hilcote, and we would not want to intrude before you have things as you like them.”
“Oh yes, of course,” Caroline said. “I have not been there, as yet, but Sir Sedgewick has promised me a more than ample budget, for decoration. He says I may change whatever I wish, which is for the best – you cannot trust a bachelor to decoration.”
Elizabeth opened her mouth to note that Mr. Darcy had done just fine, decided that would not be the best thing to point out, to Caroline, and finally said, “I am sure it will keep you quite busy, but we will look forward to seeing it when it is complete.”
The group returned to talk of Kitty’s engagement, and the joys of visiting Pemberley, for at least an hour more, and for Elizabeth, the time passed most pleasantly but for one exception. Georgiana was largely silent, although she seemed to be attending to the conversation. She answered questions when asked, and she smiled when it seemed appropriate, but there was clearly a listlessness to her that worried Elizabeth.
Chapter 35
Georgiana did attempt the pianoforte, and found she could play without pain, but upon hearing her, Elizabeth and Mrs. Annesley insisted the surgeon be called in again, to ensure she was truly ready to resume. The surgeon blessed her returning to her pianoforte practise, although starting with only a half-hour per day. Even this little amount was a relief to her – she had missed practising, and she found it was one of the few things that distracted her from thinking about Captain Stanton. For thinking about Captain Stanton was something she could not help but do throughout each day. She wondered constantly what he was doing – if he was preparing his ship for sea, or if he was at sea already – and she could not help but wonder if he ever thought about her.
Georgiana was not yet confident enough in her return to the pianoforte to attend the next musical evening, and so she learned of the viscountess’s latest invitation when Elizabeth and Mary returned home. Upon learning that they were preparing to leave town, she had determined to make good on her promise to have them to the opera in her box before it was too late, and they were all to go see Handel’s Orlando the day following Caroline Bingley’s wedding. This stirred Georgiana’s spirits somewhat; she loved the opera, and she had missed Lady Tonbridge’s company.
In the days leading up to the wedding, Georgiana busied herself with increasingly longer practises on the pianoforte, and with helping Elizabeth prepare for the trip to Pemberley. They had all grown so settled into the house on Curzon Street that there was much to attend to – determining which dresses, books, and even horses should be sent back to the estate, and ensuring the staff had all they needed to close the house upon their leaving, so that those servants who worked wherever the family was in residence could then make their way to Pemberley. As well, there were shopping trips, as this would be their last opportunity to easily purchase that which Lambton’s little shops could not provide.
There came a day, however, where Elizabeth was too distressed to participate in any of the preparations. She was in the study when Mr. Miller knocked and delivered the day’s post for Mr. and Mrs. Darcy, among it only one letter for Elizabeth, from her father. She opened it cautiously, for her father was still an indifferent correspondent, although he had been making an effort to write more often, with so much of his family gone from home. It was equally possible that it would contain news of significance, or simply a few pleasantries before Mr. Bennet descended into a description of what books he was reading and only rose from it to ask if Kitty and Mary were behaving themselves.
It was news of significance, however. Lydia had dashed off a letter to Longbourn, to inform her parents that Ensign Wickham’s regiment had begun its movement south, towards Ramsgate, so that they could embark on the transport ships that would be sortied there, and make their way to the continent. Lydia, lacking any deep connexions in Newcastle, had deemed it best to follow her “dear Wickham” over to the continent, for she did not wish to be parted from him.
“Oh, Lydia, what are you doing?” Elizabeth gasped, as she read the letter.
Darcy looked up in concern as she spoke, and his concern doubled when he saw the distress in her countenance. “What is the matter?” he asked.
“Wickham’s regiment is making its way to the continent,” she said, in a most agitated voice. “Lydia has followed him there, and it is too late to attempt to intercept her now. She has little money and no connexions on the continent, and yet she goes willingly into a war zone to follow after that man.”
“Good God, I would rather she had shown up on our doorstep unannounced,” Darcy said. “She is younger than Georgiana; I cannot imagine a girl of her age in such a place.”
“I wish I would have made it clearer to her that she was welcome here, even if her husband was not,” Elizabeth said, very near to weeping. “I know it was necessary to distance her – believe me, I should never wish to put Georgiana through the pain of encountering him again – but I wish she would have known that she had more family support. I wish she would not have thought that the most drastic action was the one she should take.”
Darcy deposited a very little glass of brandy in front of her, and she choked and spluttered through her first sip of it before finding the rest a small comfort.
“Why did she not go to Longbourn, though?” he asked, refilling her glass with more, this time. “Surely she must have felt welcome there.”
“I do not know. Lydia has always been a bit of a wild romantic – perhaps she did consider Longbourn and this house as possibilities, and still decided she should go to the continent. Somehow, her love for Wickham still seems unabated, even after all this time married to him.”
“In some ways, perhaps that is for the best. I would hate to see someone so young as her having regrets over her choice of marriage, even if we think it a poor match.”
“I suppose you are right, although right now I must say I wish she was having those regrets and had come to us, instead of following him. I never expected to go into this war wondering for her safety.”
“Edward is preparing for his own unit’s crossing through Ramsgate,” Darcy said. “We may ask him to inquire about her, if ever he can, and send her back to us if he does hear of her. I do not know that there is anything else we can do, at this point.”
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Caroline Bingley’s wedding was quite well-done, they all had to admit. Caroline would have the ceremony nowhere but in St. George’s, and had outfitted herself in the very latest fashion. Elizabeth was a bit surprised to note, as Charles Bingley walked his sister down the aisle, that Caroline looked completely and utterly happy. They had all imagined Caroline’s marriage to Sir Sedgewick to be a compromise, and perhaps it was, but it was clear Caroline had embraced it fully. The ceremony was quick – St. George’s kept up a regular flow of marriages among the ton during the season – and as the rector spoke, Elizabeth found her attention drifting.
She could not help but look at her sisters, seated down the pew from her. Mary, of course, was attending most closely to everything the rector said. Kitty had the most dreamy, faraway expression on her face, and Elizabeth assumed her to be imagining her own wedding, with Captain Ramsey. If Elizabeth was right, Kitty would be conjuring a wedding involving a great many men in naval uniform, Captain Ramsey looking the finest of all of them, Kitty herself meeting him at the altar in the finest dress of the latest fashion, and a quite a lot of swords and pomp. She had the contented look of a woman in love, and engaged to the man she loved, which was quite a contrast to Georgiana’s expression, similarly faraway, but unmistakably sad. Elizabeth wished to embrace the poor girl and tell her all would be well in the end, for Elizabeth still felt that there was a true affection between Georgiana and Captain Stanton, although neither had done much to show it, but she was too far away from her sister to even do anything so comforting as pat her hand.
The wedding breakfast, at least, proved to be most well-done, and Elizabeth hoped it was a suitable distraction for her sister. It was held at the Hursts’s, and featured the finest dishes Mr. Hurst’s French cook could supply. Mr. Hurst, in addition to providing a meal of undeniable quality, also proved to be a better host for such a large group than expected. He described every dish in great detail, and encouraged everyone at the table to try those he thought they would favour, as well as keeping up a steady stream of toasts for the newly wed couple. Mr. Hurst might have toasted a bit too much; by the end of the meal he was clearly drunk, but now his wife Louisa took over, ensuring tea as well as port were served to the gentlemen as they remained in the dining room, and leading the ladies off to the drawing room.
They all remained in the drawing room for only a little while after the gentlemen returned. Caroline and her new husband were eager to be off, and once they had left, there were only so many pleasantries that might be exchanged between Sir Sedgewick’s family and acquaintances, and Caroline’s side of the family. They all called for their carriages, and as the Darcys and Bingleys waited together, Elizabeth could not help but notice a certain new lightness in the countenances of both Charles and Jane.
Chapter 36
Georgiana found herself in a state of anticipation during the carriage ride to the Theatre Royal. None of her relations had ever seen fit to keep a regular box for the opera, although her brother or her uncle would engage one periodically if there was a performance they were particularly interested in. So while Georgiana had been to the opera many times before, it was never so frequently as she would have liked, and she knew on this evening it would be a very welcome distraction.
The viscountess had already arrived, and was mingling with the thin crowd – those in the ton who were merely there to be seen would arrive fashionably late. As soon as she saw Georgiana, she rushed over and took up her young friend’s hands.
“Miss Darcy, I am relieved to see you out in society again,” she said. “I had been worried for your health. Indeed, you do not quite look fully recovered.”
“Thank you, Lady Tonbridge, I am still a little tired,” Georgiana said, wondering if her malaise appeared as some lingering illness to others. “It is very good to see you, though. I have missed your company.”
“I have missed yours as well, my dear, especially as it comes along with the departure of so many of my military friends from town. It is cruelly unfair that we should go to war when I thought I would have their company for the whole season.”
The viscountess turned her attention to Kitty, then, looking at her with a frank smile. “Miss Catherine Bennet, do allow me to congratulate you on your engagement. You must let me claim my little piece of credit for introducing you to Captain Ramsey.”
“You should claim more credit than that,” Kitty said. “We would never have met if not for your ball.”
“Well, then, if you insist, I will take more of the credit,” the viscountess said, taking up Kitty’s arm and indicating they should all follow the two of them.
Lady Tonbridge’s box was located close to the stage, an excellent location for those most interested in hearing the performance, and also a place to be clearly seen by all in attendance. It was also already populated, to Georgiana’s surprise, by the Earl of Anglesey.
“Lord Anglesey, it is good to see you again,” she said, dropping into a curtsey as he rose to bow to everyone entering the box.
“And you, Miss Darcy,” he said. “I understand from Lady Tonbridge that you return to your family estate soon, so I am glad I have the opportunity for your company once more before you leave London.”
He stepped away from her, so that he could greet the others as they entered the box, but then returned.
“I do not suppose you have had news of my nephew since he returned to Portsmouth,” he said.
“No. Do you – do you know how he does?”
“He is very nearly ready for sea. I had a short little letter from him only yesterday. He is still thirty men short of his full complement, but he hopes with another few days, more of his old shipmates will make their way to the Jupiter.”
“When will he go to sea?”
“I expect it will not be long before the Admiralty officially announces the remobilisation of the fleet – he should go to sea as soon as he may after that. He already has his orders – he is to patrol the French coast, and supplement the blockade, if needed.”
“I hope he may spend more of his time in patrolling; I know he did not wish to be on blockade duty.”
“Indeed, no sailor does. It is perhaps a little consolation to make up for his being assigned the unfortunate Jupiter. You must believe I raised hell with every contact I had in the Admiralty when I learned of his assignment, but it was too late. It is all chaos, when it comes to ship assignments – they attempted to determine what ships could be made ready for sea most quickly, and then assigned them as captains came in to report. Matthew is at least fortunate that he was in London when news of Bonaparte’s escape came about; I expect there are some captains from the farther counties who will be given ships that will take some time to be ready for sea.”
